The Washington Nationals have their first road trip outside of their normal comfort zone that has only entailed trips to Jupiter and Port St. Lucie. Today, the Nationals are in Port Charlotte, Florida on the west coast of Florida to play the Tampa Bay Rays. The bus ride is just over three hours. Port Charlotte is south of Sarasota and north of Fort Myers.
Tomorrow, the Nats play the Atlanta Braves. Tonight, the team will stay overnight in the I-75 corridor between close to Venice, Florida. Also on Friday, the Nationals top prospects will be playing in their first of two SPRING BREAKOUT games with the other game on Sunday.
Today’s game will be a 1:05 pm start time, and the game will be radio only from the Tampa radio feed via the MLB App. The Rays are set to start RHP Shane Baz. For the Nationals, they have LHP DJ Herz going. Herz has not had a good spring so far with an 8.10 ERA and a 2.250 WHIP.
The Nationals are at 9-8-1 in Grapefruit League play. Manager Dave Martinez saw a much better effort from his team yesterday … until the 9th inning when Andrew Pinckney dropped a flyball that eventually led to three unearned runs crossing the plate, and those were the only runs of the game for Houston.
A few days ago, Martinez was asked about who would be his fifth starter which appears to be a competition between DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker at this point. There might not be enough time for Shinnosuke Ogasawara to show what he has. Yesterday on MLB Network Radio, Martinez had nice words about Brad Lord. He has pitched in five games with an impressive 0.93 ERA and a 0.621 WHIP. So why isn’t Lord a lock for the fifth starter’s spot? None of the other three have really stepped in front by a great start. Let’s look at ERA and WHIP for each: Herz 8.10/2.250, Parker 4.91/1.227, Ogasawara 7.56/2.520.
“One kid who really stands out is Brad Lord. He’s done really well this Spring. We knew last year he had a breakout year in Triple-A. … But he’s having a great Spring. Throws in the mid-90s, always attacking the zone. I like what I’ve seen so far.”
— Martinez said on MLB Network Radio
One starter who is out of the competition for the rotation is Jackson Rutledge. That is because he is being moved to the bullpen. Some would say, finally, as this seemed long overdue. Some evaluators have been saying this for years. The Nats 1st round draft pick in 2019, 17th overall, has appeared seven times for the Nationals with a career 5.72 ERA. He did come out of the bullpen twice for the Nationals in 2024 with some success. The 6-foot-8 righty might be used as a long-man or just to pitch an inning. Martinez believes he will be able to throw harder out of the bullpen and be more effective.
“I think at this point, it was more or less looking at his stuff and where we can get the most out of it. He comes in the game now and he’s 96-97 (mph). You don’t see the 92-93, because he knows you’ve got one job to do. It’s to get that one guy out and go move on to the next guy. There’s no saving for later innings. … I think it’s definitely going to help him. I think we feel like, in the long run, we could definitely use him in the bullpen.”
— Martinez said
RHP Zach Brzykcy has been dealing with a quadricep tendon issue, and he wasn’t projected to make the Opening Day roster prior to the announcement of his injury. CJ Abrams came out of the game on Wednesday with what was described as cramps in his quadriceps, and Amed Rosario was scratched due to soreness in his knee. He hasn’t been moving well most of Spring Training. Again, health is a key. Players will be ramped up in their workload as Spring Training continues.
Here is the 40-man roster as well as a list of the NRI players you will be seeing. As you also had been seeing, players from Minor League camp have been subbing in late to get some action.
There are 14-days until the Opening Day, and we get to see this lineup today:
